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Friday, April 01, 2011

Courts - Missouri trial court throws out law based on one-subject requirement

Fascinating story today in the St.Louis Post Dispatch, reported by Virginia Young. Some quotes from the long story:

Missouri's ethics law, touted as strengthening financial disclosure by public officials, was thrown out Thursday by a Cole County judge.

Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel R. Green ruled that the law was unconstitutional because it was passed as part of a bill that covered multiple subjects. The state constitution requires that bills contain only one subject.

The ruling opens a can of worms as the Legislature heads into the final six weeks of the current session. Legislators could try to re-enact parts of the law. However, one House leader said it might be too late to begin a full-fledged ethics overhaul.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Chris Koster said the state will appeal the ruling. * * *

The law was passed on the last day of the 2010 legislative session. * * *

But Green said the bill also "contains matters that do not fairly relate to ethics, have a natural connection to ethics or are a means to accomplish the law's purpose as enacted."

Those multiple subjects included changes in state purchasing rules and a requirement that each legislator be provided a key to the dome of the state Capitol.

The judge halted enforcement of all provisions except those dealing with purchasing, the original purpose of the bill. * * *

The lawsuit ... attacked the bill's multiple subjects, relying on a 1994 case known as Hammerschmidt vs. Boone County. In that ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court said limiting bills to a single subject was intended to allow legislation to "be better grasped and more intelligently discussed."

The ILB has been able to locate the Supreme Court of Missouri's 1994 opinion in Hammerschmidt vs. Boone County, which was relied on in the current case.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 1, 2011 10:57 AM
Posted to Courts in general